Players Who Would Have Been Good

[Ads]

Tempted to use ballers instead of good.

Thinking of Jota and how he has gone from playing on a cabbage patch to a football pitch again under a manager who does coaching, tactics and other witchcraft, got me to thinking;

Who have we had under dont do tactics Bruce, don't do them as I'm aloof RDM, gave up doing them Garde, too complicated for me Tim, too thick for it Lambert, 7 centre backs Eck and 1960s MON, that didn't make the grade but maybe would under Smith?

I think Gil may have had a chance to start us off. Any other names?

[SoccerHQ]

Amavi.

Kid played in europa league final and called up by France since leaving us. In this type of team he'd be brilliant I think.

You could actually make a case for all the foreign players we signed in 2015 being much better in this style, Gana's joining PSG isn't he?

[kieron]

Veretout

[Steve67]

Veretout, just for the fact that he seems to have moved from powerhouse club to an even bigger powerhouse club.  Maybe he wasn't quite cut out for the Premier Division, or was he just very badly treated and ostracised by a wank manager at the time? 

Gueye hasn't been too shabby either has he?  As Mod Dave said earlier on this evening too, Gollini is first choice at Atalanta and doing really well.

[SoccerHQ]

Have to look at the positions they'd play in if they came back, Veretout is decent player as he's shown in France and Italy but thought he was knocked off the ball too easily at times, would rather have McGinn.

Given our need for a DM Gana would walk into this 11 as would Amavi I think.

[paul_e]

Amavi and Veretout for me. Both looked like they could've been very good players for us.

[kieron]

Adama Traoré

Spoiler for Hiden:

Only fucking joking!

[PeterWithe]

Have to look at the positions they'd play in if they came back, Veretout is decent player as he's shown in France and Italy but thought he was knocked off the ball too easily at times, would rather have McGinn.

Yes but before joining us he hadn’t regularly played in a central two, it really was an epic fuck up to buy these players and chuck them into entirely alien formations.

[SoccerHQ]

Have to look at the positions they'd play in if they came back, Veretout is decent player as he's shown in France and Italy but thought he was knocked off the ball too easily at times, would rather have McGinn.

Yes but before joining us he hadn’t regularly played in a central two, it really was an epic fuck up to buy these players and chuck them into entirely alien formations.

When Garde came in we started playing a more balanced trio of Sanchez-Gana-Veretout. Results improved slightly (we started drawing a game or two at least). Ultimately we were just done as a premier league club at that point so any new player had no chance although likes of Richards and Lescott didn't help themselves with their conduct.

[paul_e]

Have to look at the positions they'd play in if they came back, Veretout is decent player as he's shown in France and Italy but thought he was knocked off the ball too easily at times, would rather have McGinn.

Yes but before joining us he hadn’t regularly played in a central two, it really was an epic fuck up to buy these players and chuck them into entirely alien formations.

When Garde came in we started playing a more balanced trio of Sanchez-Gana-Veretout. Results improved slightly (we started drawing a game or two at least). Ultimately we were just done as a premier league club at that point so any new player had no chance although likes of Richards and Lescott didn't help themselves with their conduct.

I started writing the same, I thought midfield looked functional for a month or 2 but we had no presence or goal threat up front, our centre backs were a joke and our keeper went from being an average but competent premier league keeper to looking like he belonged in non-league. We needed 3-4 signings on January 1st to give ourselves a chance and Lerner just waved the white flag instead. After that we dropped a level again because everyone at the club knew we were fucked.

[Damo70]

Lots of players at lots of clubs have been successful in other countries before and after spells in the Premier League but looked poor during their time in England so it is nothing new or unique to us. But clearly the fact that so many of our summer signings that year were flops for us but have had decent careers elsewhere suggests that Sherwood and the state of the club in general were the problem that season.

[Border villan]

Mark Albrighton

[wittonwarrior]

Very little to do with sherwood who for me proved he had something- the French guys were forced on him

[dcdavecollett]

What, those French guys who have since been sold for a shedload of transfer fees?

[wittonwarrior]

I think the issue here with the French players is that they arrived at the Villa in a turbulent environment, were not prepared to give 110% and moved on.  From what Sherwood has said though they were forced on him and the total mix at the start of the relegation season just was not right.

The likes of Amavi /Gana at the time  i was more than happy to say au revoir

I liken it in a bit to stories when Rodney Marsh joined Manchester City - not only do you need talent but it has to be the right talent.